onward...

Again at the polishing HOC task this morning, trying to fit it into my busy life, erggg!

Will be trading the first five pages with other writers tonight at the UCD extension group to give each other critiques based on the advice in THE FIRST FIVE PAGES by Noah Lukeman, a great book I look forward to rereading *:)

facing our duality

Love this line from Sister's in Crime blog post today by L. J. Sellers, defending the literary and otherwise merit of crime fiction:

"[Crime] Novels with well-written protagonists and antagonists bring us to terms with the duality within ourselves."

See the whole piece at http://sisters-in-crime-sinc.blogspot.com/

synopsis

Got the synopsis down to two single-spaced pages now, in prep for turning it in to tonight's class. Will fine tune and also revise my query letter from last week.

Saturday, at Zoe Keithley's Story Circle Workshop, got a new scene written as part of adding in autopsy report along with deeper motivation for detective Eddie Keen.

Write hard, die free *:)

synopsis time!

Today began writing a 2-page synopsis of House of Cuts as part of a UCD Extension class on the business of writing, taught by agent Verna Dreisbach--great class!

I'm using the whole book outline I created last September as the basis for the synopsis and it is working!!!!!!!!!!!

Reading...

Just starting UOP prof. Scott Evan's TRAGIC FLAWS, a mystery set in the Delta. You can get it on Amazon or at http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=48340

back at it

Finally! Back this morning working on House of Cuts--the polishing seems endless; this time I reworked the opening scene reflecting input from writers at Gold Rush Writer's Conference weekend before last, in the Joy of Writing Sex workshop facilitated by Antoinette May, author of Pilate's Wife and other works.

We agreed that Americans can be so prudish, Europeans kid us for that "flaw," and folks agreed with me that if we put more sex into mainstream novels, the romance genre might not grab the 57% of the market that it does now.

A mission in life *:)

week with wings

A whole week has flow by since my last post! Spent three days at the Gold Rush Writers' Conference at Mokulumne Hill Fri-Sunday, getting some new ideas for final polishing of House of Cuts. Again, getting slowed down on yet it feels worth it. Also spent the last two Mondays at the UC Davis Extension Galleria learning more about publishing from the awesome agent Verna Dreisbach. For next Monday, we have to write and bring query letters and read aloud to the class for critique by Verna and another agent! Plus we have to give a 45 word pitch, too!

Now all I need to do is to go away to an isolated spot and finsh the novel--all the way. But, yikes, it's the end of the semester and I'm overwhelmed with student papers to read and grade!!!

~~time, need more of it!